Laundry folding accessory

ABSTRACT

A laundry folding accessory having normally closed laundry clamping jaw means mountable in an upright position and including foot manipulatable means for operating the clamping jaw while the hands are engaged in folding manipulations. The accessory comprises a unitary assembly readily securable to a table top or a wall-mounted bracket.

United States Patent Gross [451 Sept. 5, 1972 [54] LAUNDRY FOLDINGACCESSORY [72] Inventor: Henry W. Gross, 314 W. Chartres,

Anaheim, Calif. 92805 [22] Filed: Aug. 5, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 61,274

[52] US. Cl ..269/100, 223/37, 223/DIG. 2, 269/158, 269/254 CS [51] Int.Cl. ..B25b l/02, B23q 3/02, B25b 1/04 [58] Field of Search ..269/158,254, 100, 101; 223/37, DIG. 2

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/ 1921 Rubinstein ..269/254Pomeroy ..269/254 805,809 1 1/1905 Nunnally ..269/254 109,747 11/1870Mahlon ..269/101 488,315 12/1892 2,905,367 9/ 1959 Coutu...;'. ..269/254X 3,538,555 1l/1970 Langston ..223/37 X Primary Examiner-Wayne A. Morse,Jr. Attorney-Sellers and Brace [57] ABSTRACT A laundry folding accessoryhaving normally closed laundry clamping jaw means mountable in anupright position and including foot manipulatable means for operatingthe clamping jaw while the hands are engaged in folding manipulations.The accessory comprises a unitary assembly readily securable to a tabletop or a wall-mounted bracket.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures Patehtod I Sept. 5, 1972 INVENTOR A/EA/P) If!6390.55 w

LAUNDRY FOLDING ACCESSORY This invention relates to laundry equipment,and more particularly to a simple, manually operated clamping assemblymountable in an upright position and adapted to clamp one pair ofcorners of flatwork while the operator is folding the same compactly forstorage on a shelf or in a drawer.

The processing of laundered flatwork into a compact unit presentsirksome problems unless two or more persons are available and cooperatein holding remote pairs of corners of such items as bed and tablelinens. The problem is common to the home, institutions and publiclaundries. Various proposals have been made heretofore to provideholding accessories; however these are subject to numerous deficienciesand disadvantages avoided by the present invention. The presentaccessory comprises a unitary assembly designed to be easily installedin an upright position with its clamping jaw conveniently positioned foruse by a standing operator and having a jaw operating member terminatingnear the floor for convenient engagement by the operators foot.Typically and by way of example, the clamping jaws may be at shoulderheight with the operating foot control close to floor level. Thebrackets for the jaw and foot operator are securable either to a tabletop or an equivalent wall mounted bracket and the accessory is foundequally efficient in folding a wide range of flatwork such as large bedsheets, long table linens, floor rugs of a wide variety of shapes andsizes and the like items.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide animproved, rugged, unitary folding accessory readily installed by thenovice in the home or in a commercial establishment and enabling asingle operator to fold both large and smaller flatwork speedily,efficiently and with a minimum of effort.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an improved laundryfolding accessory occupying a minimum of space and readily secured to atable top or a wall bracket for use by a single operator while standmg.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a unitary laundryfolding accessory comprising a pair of main bracket sub-units securableto the opposite sides of a table top or a wall bracket and having alaundry gripping facility at its upper end and a foot operated releasetherefor close to but preferably independent of the floor.

These and other more specific objects will appear upon reading thefollowing specification and claims and upon considering in connectiontherewith the attached drawing to which they relate.

Referring now to the drawing in which a preferred embodiment of theinvention is illustrated:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the inventionfolding accessory shown secured to a forward corner of a table andindicating a typical mode of use to fold flatwork;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the clamping accessory on anenlarged scale;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view, partly in section, taken along line 3-3 onFIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view partly in section, on an enlarged scaletaken along line 4-4 on FIG. 1.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown oneillustrative embodiment of the clamping accessory, designated generally10, having a rigid main body formed in two halves comprising an upperbracket unit 11 and a lower bracket unit 12. The respective bracketunits have a flat base plate 13,14 formed with aligned holes for use insecuring the same,

as by mounting bolts 16, to the upper and lower sides of a table top 15,or to an equivalent bracket means secured to a wall.

Upper bracket 11, as here shown, comprises three generally upright legs17 ,18,19 having their lower ends welded or otherwise secured to baseplate 13 and their upper ends welded to a tubular fixed clamping jaw 20.Rubber cups 21,22 may be telescoped over the opposite ends of jaw 20.The cooperating movable clamping jaw 23 is slidably supported in a pairof vertically aligned tubes 24,25 with their adjacent ends welded orotherwise secured about aligned openings in base plate 13,14,respectively. A resilient cup 26 is installed over the upper end of themovable clamping jaw 23 and is normally held seated against the adjacentlower end of cup 22 by means to be described presently.

The lower bracket unit 12 is constructed generally similarly to unit 11and comprises a pair of strut members 28,29 disposed to either side oftube 25 with their upper ends welded to lower base plate 14 and theirlower ends welded to the opposite sides of tube 25. Movable jaw member23 is loosely and freely supported within guide tubes 24,25 with itslower looped end 31 terminating close to but slightly above floor leveland constituting a step or foot engaging member for use by the operatorin opening jaw 23 away from fixed jaw 22.

Normally the two jaw members 20,23 are held firmly engaged by one ormore springs 30 having their upper ends anchored to base plate 14 byeyelets 32 and their lower ends anchored to the movable jaw member 23 ata point below the lower end of guide tube 25. In this connection and asis best shown in FIG. 3, it will be understood that bolts 33, 34 serveto anchor a pair of clamping plates 35 to jaw 23. The upper edges ofplates 35 are normally held against the lower end of tube 25 by tensionsprings 30 the lower ends of which are anchored to the upper pair ofclamping bolts 33.

The operation and mode of use of the described laundry folding accessorywill be readily apparent from the foregoing description of a typicalembodiment thereof. It will be understood that, preferably, the clampingjaws 20,23 are located at a convenient operating height, as for exampleshoulder height, adjacent the vertical plane through the forward edge ofa laundry counter or folding table. This facilitates the folding of verylarge flat material such as the double bed sheet 40 indicated indot-and-dash lines. As shown in FIG. 1, one pair of remote lateralcorners of the bed sheet are superimposed and inserted between theclamping jaws 20, 23 as the operator inserts her foot within strip 31and depresses it until the corners are inserted and then relaxes thepressure allowing springs 30 to move jaw 23 upwardly and hold theinserted corners captive. Thereafter the operator grasps the upper righthand corners 42 of the sheet and pulls the upper edges taut in agenerally horizontal plane while allowing the remainder of the bed sheetto drape vertically as illustrated. The operator may then retain a graspof corners 42 with one hand while running the other hand along the uppertaut edge of the sheet and folding the sheet clockwise about an uppermedial folding point in a manner well known to those experienced infolding flatwork. After the material has been folded to a convenienthandling size the operator retains grasp of the upper edges of thefolded material while stepping into stirrup 31 to open the clamping jawsand permit removal of the left hand upper corners.

While the particular laundry folding accessory herein shown anddisclosed in detail is fully capable of attaining the objects andproviding the advantages hereinbefore stated, it is to be understoodthat it is merely illustrative of the presently preferred embodiment ofthe invention, and that no limitations are intended to the details ofconstruction or design herein shown other than as defined in theappended claims.

I claim:

1. An accessory for holding a corner of large sheets of laundry itemscaptive generally at shoulder height of a standing operator while beinghand folded, said accessory having a long main body comprising first andsecond brackets, each of said brackets having a wide area sheet metalbase member, a plurality of upright rigid members having one end of eachsecured to a respective base member near spaced apart points along theperimeter portions thereof, a fixed jaw member secured to and supportedby the outer ends of the upright rigid members of said first bracket,tubular means secured to and supported by the outer ends of the uprightrigid members of said second bracket, common means for securing saidfirst and second brackets in vertically aligned position against theupper and lower surfaces respectively of a table top, elongated rigidjaw means reciprocably supported through said base members, table andthrough said tubular means at the lower end of said second bracket,spring means connected between said rigid jaw means and one of saidbrackets normally holding the upper end of said rigid jaw means closedagainst the juxtaposed surface of said fixed jaw member, and said rigidjaw member including means attached to the lower end thereof positionednear floor level and conveniently engageable by the operators foot toopen said rigid jaw means away from said fixed jaw member whileinserting or removing a comer of sheet material undergoing folding.

1. An accessory for holding a corner of large sheets of laundry itemscaptive generally at shoulder height of a standing operator while beinghand folded, said accessory having a long main body comprising first andsecond brackets, each of said brackets having a wide area sheet metalbase member, a plurality of upright rigid members having one end of eachsecured to a respective base member near spaced apart points along theperimeter portions thereof, a fixed jaw member secured to and supportedby the outer ends of the upright rigid members of said first bracket,tubular means secured to and supported by the outer ends of the uprightrigid members of said second bracket, common means for securing saidfirst and second brackets in vertically aligned position against theupper and lower surfaces respectively of a table top, elongated rigidjaw means reciprocably supported through said base members, table andthrough said tubular means at the lower end of said second bracket,spring means connected between said rigid jaw means and one of saidbrackets normally holding the upper end of said rigid jaw means closedagainst the juxtaposed surface of said fixed jaw member, and said rigidjaw member including means attached to the lower end thereof positionednear floor level and conveniently engageable by the operator''s foot toopen said rigid jaw means away from said fixed jaw member whileinserting or removing a corner of sheet material undergoing folding.